Fundraiser Draws $100K for Homeless Man Who Returned Money-Filled Bag

Good karma for a good Samaritan

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AP

Glen James, left, with Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis at the police headquarters in Boston on Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. James, who is homeless, turned in a backpack containing $2,400 in U.S. currency, almost $40,000 in traveler's checks, as well as Chinese passports and other personal papers to police after finding the items in a Boston mall late Saturday.

A good deed can go a long way, and one Boston homeless man can tell you all about it.

Earlier this week, Glen James made headlines for returning a backpack he found outside a shopping mall that contained more than $40,000 in cash and travelers’ checks. It was a heartwarming story of one Good Samaritan, but the story doesn’t end there.

Ethan Whittington, an Alabama native who has never been to Boston, came across James’s story online and decided to act. On Tuesday he started an online campaign to raise $50,000 for James.

By Thursday morning, Whittington, 27, had raised nearly $100,000 from almost 4,000 donors and had increased the goal to $250,000.

“Let’s all chip in and help this man change his life,” Whittington writes on the fundraiser site. “Let’s be reassured that there is still hope and humanity in our great nation.”

Whittington and James spoke on the phone for the first time Wednesday, and the pair are still devising a plan to transfer the funds to James, according to the Boston Globe.

Check out the fundraiser here to donate.